Turns out that national marketers are pretty big sports fans. At least that seems to be the conclusion judging from TV ad sales for the two major sports events coming next month: Super Bowl XL and the
Winter Olympics. ABC, which will televise the biggest football game of the year, reports that it has sold 85 percent of its inventory (without heavy discounting, the network claims) and is on track
for $150 million in sales. At the same time, Olympics network NBC says it's 90 percent sold out and should hit its $900 million target. Longtime Super Bowl advertisers McDonald's and Visa decided not
to play football this year and put all their advertising eggs in the Olympics basket. The Olympics have more ad time for less money--an average of $700,000 per 30-second, prime-time ad slot, says NBC.
Super Bowl slots averaged $2.4 million.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at USA Today »